My name is Jamie Atkinson, founder of Podcast Closing dotcom, and this show is built for 6 and 7 figure entrepreneurs with podcasts who are looking to grow and scale their customer acquisition using that show. If you're a 6 or a 7 figure entrepreneur with a podcast and you wanna get featured on this show to talk about your own podcast journey, go to top 100interview.com. Now over to your glamorous host, Brittany Chitterbuck, and don't forget to subscribe for daily interview content. Hey, guys. Welcome back to the 6 Figure Podcast Rebels.
Britt here. We have another great interview ahead of us today. The guest I'm bringing on is has after almost a decade in the carpentry business and owner of Conrad Construction, Chris Long, the founder and CEO of Long Yard Storage from Ottawa, Ontario is now has now immigrated to the States to pursue the international build out of this company. This guy's got amazing things going on. He's also about to launch his own podcast called LongYard's podcast.
So thanks for jumping on, Chris. You're doing amazing. I love that we can get you on an interview today. But before we really get started, do you mind just telling us a little bit more about your story and how how you got to where you are today? Because I think you're doing amazing things, and I I want you to share it with the people listening.
Yeah. Thanks, Britney, for the intro and, excited to be here and excited to chat. So yeah, basically, I mean, I was a carpenter started off in the trades. And I was always a hustler at 12 years old, selling chocolate bars, you know, never had nothing to do. I was like, you know what, I'm gonna go there out there and make it work.
And I always wanted to build something bigger. So I started off in construction. It's funny. I always love real estate. But loving real estate, I quickly learned that the construction is is hard to scale because you never want one job is never the same, and you need so many different schools of expertise.
So I started off in construction. I got my ticket as a carpenter, went into real estate, loved real estate. And, you know, bought my first two houses, turned them into duplexes myself, bootstrap them, got them going, and they've gone to the bigger you know, we had 10 employees. We had 2 managers. We were scaling.
And then I did a large commercial job, and I got hit pretty hard, you know, I didn't get paid. It was enough to make it painful. So I took a step back, you know, from 10 employees to 2. And then I started up back up myself again, put the tool belt on, started up again. I always make more money with 2 employees than they would 8 because I learned so much.
But I still so I, you know, so I had this commercial property in my house and I was pivoting. I knew I wanted to do something different. I didn't know how I was gonna do it. And then I figured, you know what? It's funny.
Like, every time I go home, I had all these tools and equipment and trailers everywhere. And I'm like, you know, like, my house is just a mess. It looks like a bombshell. And there's really no place for a contractor to call home. So the light bulb just went off.
I had this commercial property near my house. I had all this equipment. And I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna go all in on this idea, on this concept of building a yard for myself. I'm like, I figured if someone else needs it if I need it, someone else needs it.
And very simple. You know, know, I'm a very simple person in most cases. I'm like, if that's if it's gonna work for me, it's gonna work for somebody else. So sure enough, and no one was gonna get behind me. Like, I was talking to investors.
I'm like, come on. Come find me, guys. Like, I got this great idea. And they're like, what? You wanna do what?
I'm like, okay. It's a it's a outside storage with a fence around it. And it was like, wow. Can't figure it out. I'm like, so no one would get behind me.
I'm like, oh, you know what? I had to sell Oh my gosh. So simple. Right? I had to sell both my houses and just to get it started.
And I literally was doing fencing myself on the weekends. I was painting the place up. I could barely afford to get it going because I was bootstrapping. I was just coming out of a bit of a loss, but I was motivated and determined to get this going. So I did it.
You know, we got it going and I couldn't even afford to the front gates on of my first tenants. I had to presell them and get them to pay for a year upfront just to finish building out their their, you know, their yard. And it was just putting gates on as simple as thing. But sure enough, I cut the ribbon October 1st, and we're about to hit our 3rd year anniversary, October 1st, and we released up in 6 weeks. And then I knew at that point, I'm like, oh my god.
This works. I'm on something. And then the next year, we built a, phase 2, built a phase 3, and now it's leased up. And then and then it was like, oh my god. The second light bulb went off.
It's like, okay. This works. Now how big can this really get? And then I was like, you know what? I'm gonna go where the heat is.
So I'm going to Florida. And pretty much and I took the next leap of faith. You know, after I sold my first house with my duplexes to get in my small residential portfolio, you know, my wife and I, we sold our personal house and I'm like, we're just going all in. That's what we did. So now we're in Florida and we're building out internationally and, you know, we're we're just looking to grow.
We built into a franchise because I figured if this worked for me, it's gonna work for others. I'm just excited to, you know, dive into the details and see where this goes. Absolutely incredible. I love what you're doing, Chris, and I love that, you know, you took that leap of faith. You didn't let the the fear or the the like, hold you back or any of the people that were like, you sure this is gonna work?
Like, this is just incredible and, yeah. So I really wanted you to share your story because it's, takes a lot of courage to do something like that and you're just rocking it. So amazing. So we all know that within building a 6 figure business or higher, there's a lot of the wins and but there's a lot of challenges as well. What would been what was the toughest challenge throughout this whole journey?
Would you or or some of the toughest challenges we can make? There was a there was a lot of challenges. Like, you know, I can go back to when I was, like, 14. You know? Like, I don't know.
Like, be because it starts with the construction business. And as an apprentice, like, I had to work a full week just to buy a single tool. Right? And I I had a daughter young at 20. So being able to, you know, run my construction business or start off as a carpenter and work those 40, 50 hours a week to going on pricing jobs in the evenings and working on the weekends.
Just, you know, I do a weekend job to buy one tool. And that's how it started. So it's almost 6 months to a year just to buy tools to start being efficient at jobs. So, like, the the challenges, like, there's so many different layers of challenges on so many different I don't even know where to begin. You know?
But at the end of day, it's like the perseverance and determination. I think your your why has to be greater than your how. So when you figure out why you wanna do it and you have that you know? Some people call it a fire. Some people call it a hole that needs to be filled.
I don't know which one I have, but, you know, I'm working on both of them. So, I mean, you just gotta have the perseverance and drive to overcome it, and that's where it started. It started one tool at a time, one job at a time. And no matter what hiccups you're gonna whether it's a a, you know, discouraging client or someone not paying you or an employee not showing up or the million reasons, you have to have more reasons to to get through it. So, I mean, you know, I don't know if you wanna dive into details, but there's so many I can dive into different whether it's a relationship.
I've gone through, you know, also complete divorce, and I've gone through the bankruptcy. I've gone through, like, immigrating. I've gone through, like, almost every pain that you can name. Like, I've gone through it. So, you know, but it's it's just And you made it through it.
I made it through it. And and I I still don't expect the road to be easy. Like, I'm I know the road's gonna be hard in front of me, but I you know, the why, like I said, is greater than how. And I'll get through any obstacle I feel like is in front of me. So, yeah, I think it's just like when you fall, you fall forward and you get up.
You get up quick and take some time to digest after you fell. It's like, okay. Why did I get my butt kicked? So you don't get bruised so, you know, easy the second time. But I think that's it.
It's just a matter of perseverance. Right? And and that's the difference, like, success and failures. The people that are willing to to face the failure. That's the only difference.
How many times you will Yeah. Like you said, fail forward. Learn from it. Grow from it. Yeah.
Yeah. That's it. So Awesome. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about I know we were chatting before we jumped on the interview, but a little bit about, why you're starting your podcast, what intentional actions did you take to go about starting it?
And, yeah, let's talk about that again. Yeah. I mean, we're really excited to launch the podcast. So my thought process was we're reeducating our clients for long years, and we're reeducating anyone that wants to get behind us to help really scale this. Because, you know, like I said, getting it started with the funding, people are like, what are you doing?
Contracted yards? And and then once it started getting momentum, then it's like, the light bulb went off. So it's the same thing where clients in. It's almost that exact moment all the time. They're like, oh my god.
How come this doesn't exist? And I'm like, I know. We need to let the world know. So, you know, with with the podcast, it's like my thought process, let's get some of these small businesses on here. Let's let them talk about their journey, you know, what difference they're making in the community, why they started.
Let them share their story, and then promote it to the area. That's what we wanna do because we encourage we want to support the small businesses in the long lived community. So that, you know and then it just kinda goes off to other areas. Like, you know, we have, franchisees that wanna talk about their journey and why they wanna escape the corporate world and how they feel like this is, you know, an area for them. You just saw so many different things to talk about.
It's like, you know, our business doesn't impact is not impact impacted by supply lines. We don't have labor issues. So there's a lot of reasons why people are like, oh my god. This is a great space and we're quick. You know, a lot of people love real estate, but there's a lot of hurdles going through almost all these different weeds and layers where us Right.
We're speed we're we're built to, you know, on speed. So the podcast just, you know, let's let's get people out there, talk about our journey, and and just, know, see what happens basically. Love it. I think it's gonna be really beneficial to your business and other people's as well, you know, getting getting the word out there and, talking about your journey, sharing your whys. Podcasts are huge, like, honestly, and they'll bring and I believe that they can bring you a lot of business.
And, yeah, that's amazing. I'm really happy that you're going to be starting one and so soon, which is exciting. So based on, like, people you're gonna bring on for your podcast, are you are you gonna be doing more solo interview, solos, or are you doing interviews with people all the time? Which or you're doing a little bit of both? Well, I was gonna do some solos just because I've learned so much, being a small business owner that I wanna give back on the value of that.
Like, I always hear in the industry, like, how do you price jobs and understanding your margin and your churn and all these different formulas. And just because of my skill set and expertise that have gone through this, I wanna provide that value back. And the more value I can give these small businesses, I think the more they'll see success and the more I'll see success. So I think it's gonna be a hybrid. And, you know, I'm excited to actually talk with some of the things because I've I've had all this consulting and coaching that I've paid for over the years that give me so much value that I just wanna be a fountain to the world.
And be like, here what here's what I've learned. This is how it can help. So there's that and then be a fountain to the world. I can already see it. This is gonna be great.
Yeah. So I'm super pumped. And then, you know, just the interviewing with, like, as an example, I was saying with our welder and getting him on. Like, what are you working on? You know?
And what, what kind of project got going? Why did you start? And let him tell his story and then help help him get business and then, you know, provide value to the marketplace. And that's what we're all about. Right?
We're our our why our mission is just to support small businesses and help each other grow. Right. Absolutely. And so, so you're bringing on your welder. Now with the next people that you're gonna be interviewing, how are you gonna like, do you have what is your client acquisition look like?
On the on these for them, the actual facility side? Sorry. I should I word that wrong. With the interviews, how are how are you gonna go about getting other people in the interviews? Are you gonna be attracting your dream customers or just people you know?
Like, I know you said you're gonna bring 1 year welder, but is there anyone else that you want to go about getting? And, who are your dream people to interview? Like, that that's my question, I guess. It's a good question. I mean, I don't know.
We have a lot of just organic and natural growth. So my first list of clients is going to our first list of guests is going to the actual clients in the facility and just ask and we have a good like, there's you know, we have over 60 clients just right there. So I have a good list I can do just from there. And then we have investors that are joining on. We have partners that are are working with Longyear.
So I'd love to interview them, get them, you know, to talk about their why and their experience and how they provide value to the Longyear's team and what their their vision is to build this out internationally. And, I mean, I'm a little crazy. I spent $25 to have dinner with Grant Cardone just to chat with him, and that was a game changer. So, you know, if I can get people if I can get these big people on the podcast and just to help, I would I'd love to do that. So I you know, I'm not afraid to to ask or to hear no and just to have fun with it.
So yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I love it. I just love your drive and motivation.
It's incredible. We need we need more people like this in the world. I swear. It's it's it's so exciting to see that. And, yeah.
So go ahead. Yeah. Especially during, like, COVID, you know, like, if it's one thing that, the last few years, like, everyone's been so fear driven. And I don't know if that's the best way to say it, but it's like, we need people to, like, stand up. And it's like, you know what, man?
Like, if you have goals and dreams, like, go for it. Follow it. Don't let, you know, nothing slow you down. I think there needs to be a balance in the marketplace and in the world where people just really pursue their goals and their dreams. And too many too many dreams die hard and it's just sad to see.
So yeah. I'm I'm pumped to, like, you know, just I'm not stopping and I wish I can build motivation and inspire others to to go forward, you know. I love it. It's it's exciting to hear all this and you're gonna do fantastic things. So once you start your podcast, how are you gonna go about monetizing it?
Have you thought about that yet or anything? I'm just curious. I it's one of the questions I always ask on my interviews. Yeah. Yeah.
I love it. We're on a learning curve. So, like, we're doing so many different things that we've never done before that I don't have all the answers, but I know there's one step in front of me and I'm taking that step. And that's the exact same thing. That's with the podcast, with our blogging, with so many things we're doing.
So even the franchise, I'm like, I never built a franchise. Let's go. So Yeah. Yeah. I'm not that far along, but I, you know, I got this philosophy done.
It's better than perfect, and let's just keep marching. And that's where I'm going. So we got a good name. I think we have a good, you know, mission. We we have great guests and monetizing it.
You know, I'm not really sure. We have our email marketing campaigns. We just started. We have blogs we're gonna be sending out. You know, we have we have momentum now in the marketplace of just people reaching out wanting to chat.
So I feel like, you know, we we just have a lot of different directions we're pushing forward, and it's just it's all gonna help with the the the organic growth. So right now folks are organic at a time. Yeah. And and just one step exactly. One step at a time.
And I'm just excited to to chat with people, to be honest. I I love what I'm doing, and I wanna get people to, you know, have their voice heard. So I'm just excited to make that happen. Incredible. So what is your biggest focus and desire this year?
That can be with the podcast. That can be with your business. I know we kinda touched on, you know, where you're going or where you plan on going. But what is your ultimate focus and desire for this year? Well With the podcast and with the business.
Yeah. Like, our our north star with the business is to get as many yards and new clients as possible. So, you know, we have many broken down goals to get there, whether it's corporate locations or or franchisee having their own locations. So that's our north star. Just getting as many yards as possible, and that breaks down to whether it's Canada or the States, what markets.
I mean, we are focused on, like, the southern markets. It's funny, man. One of my biggest expenses is snow. So if I can stay away from snow, I'm happy. I'm really Yeah.
Exactly. Right? Kidding. So for my business, if I don't have snow removal, then, hey, life is good. So that you know, that's that's our north star for the business.
And and I think anything I could do to help monetize that, that's, you know, that's what that's what direction we're going in. Amazing. Well, I'm really excited for you because I you're a go getter, and I already can see like, I wanna get you back on here in a year and just hear about that journey. You know? Yeah.
I'm confident. Have a lot of things happen this year, and I'm excited to hear about them. And, yeah. Based on where you are today, if you were to say double or trip triple your revenue and profit in 1 year, what would you do differently? Or what are what are some of the changes that you would have to make, and what are some of the new challenges that might come up?
I guess you're already focused on, you know, growing a lot like that anyways. But what would some of the challenge new challenges be? Yeah. It's really great. So, part of the business development journey is we're learning that, you know, the different the business has different breakouts at certain, you know, financial capacities.
And one of the things I'm learning is the human capital that you're gonna need for those breakouts. And we've already started re preemptively building out the resumes and who we need when we need them. So it's like, I know when we break out at x amount of locations and x amount of corporate locations, we need these people with an x amount of salary and the financial projections. So we have a pretty granular, what we know, at what point who who we need to get there. And we're we're probably ahead by, I'd say, 2 breakouts.
And I say that, you know, you could write any business plan you want and then rip it in half. And just because in most cases, everything you plan doesn't plan the you know, work out to exactly what you want to, but, you know, you need to plan to fail or you're gonna you know, you you say you do need to build those projections as best you can. So, I mean, that's what we're working on, and I with any business, you just need great people around you. And so that's what we're working on. Because our 1st location, it just crushed it.
I mean, I bought it for 470,000. We put 700,000 into it and it's worth 3,600,000. So that one deal the one deal changed my life. And now we just wanna build those manuals things as possible. And the great thing about long years is that it doesn't you know, as much as I'm focused on people, it doesn't need many people, which is like a a great thing because I got one my location in Canada, I've been there twice in the last 15 months.
We have a manager and it's smooth sailing. I just check-in on it, give him a call and it's great. It's a little cash cow and there's so much equity there. So I mean, we can really expand with a massive bandwidth of locations and and the human capital is still very very, you know, great. It's just I'm very quality control focused.
Getting my butt kicked the first time, you know, I I grow with quality and control and and in mind. So we wanna make sure that our clients are always being well taken care of, and we have great people around us. So I think that's the answer in the short term. Just, you know, focusing on great people, great systems, and going from there. I love it.
Awesome. I'm so excited for you. Like, I keep saying, like, it's just incredible. Like, that one deal made your whole life change almost. Right?
Yeah. Like It's not. Because I didn't let fear stop me. Like, I got crushed, and I lost what I felt like was everything. And then I had 10 employees, and I went back to myself.
And I'm like, you know what? I'm not gonna let that happen again. But the fear of losing it all didn't stop me. I'm like, I'm still gonna take this risk. I'm still gonna go for it, and I'm glad I did.
And that one location changed my life. And now, like I said, I just wanna do it again and again. It's a drug. It's my high. So going to.
I love this. I love these energies. People, struggle with that fear of, loss or feel failure. Right? So but that usually hold that that holds them back.
You know? A lot of people are scared of the unknown, what might happen, but they don't think about all the things the good things that like, some people a lot of people do think about the good things that could come out of it. But there are a lot of people that are so afraid of the unknown that they're not they don't risk, they don't risk anything and they don't grow. Right? So I think not like, for you to not let that fear hold you back, like, has made a world of difference.
And I I I really wanted to share your story today because I think a lot of people listening need to hear that. Right? So There's so many there's so many fears whether or not, like, you're working a job that you don't like or even in a relationship that you're not happy with. Like, these are some of these poisons that are just, like, you know, burning your soul. Like, I had to go through that too.
I was in, like, a long term relationship, and there wasn't support on the entrepreneurial side, and I had to break it. You know? I midnight move. I'm like, I'm getting out of here. And it and it was like, wow.
You really don't know the joy and freedom you're denying yourself until you take the leap. You know? And and that's really it's tough that you have to just go through that in order to experience it and go behind you and say, wow. I can't believe I was in that position. But you don't know until you take that leap.
And and it's sad that so many people are just afraid to take that leap. So, like, anything I could do to encourage or support anyone, I'm happy to do that. Because, like, you know, I've I've never let fear hold me back on taking leaps, and I feel like that's why I'm where I am today. And some It is. It's gotta be calculated risk.
Like, you can't be complete crazy, but, you know, you you have to you gotta see you gotta be optimistic and and and still move forward. Like You gotta chase those dreams and never give up. And the consistency too. Right? Yeah.
So, like, a lot of like, I you're a 100% correct. Like, I don't know. You just everything I was about to say, you already said it. So it's great. Yeah.
And because it's the I I if I could touch on that because it's more like what you're not doing that makes you successful. Right? Because I'm like, I'm laser focused on contractor guards. I have opportunities to people like, hey. Let's do this.
Let's do that. It's like, no. No. You gotta say no more than you gotta say. You gotta say no a lot and stay focused on your goals.
Like, that's one thing. If you're gonna pursue your your goals and your dreams, like, you know, stay focused, build your goals, your task list, and get crunching, be persistent every day. And then, you know, you gotta go into it knowing it's not gonna be an easy journey and you gotta just crunch at it every single day and that's it. You know? Yeah.
And the people who come through are the ones who are consistent, like you said. They do you have to learn to say no to certain things, you know, focus on those dreams, chase those goals. Otherwise, they're just dreams. Right? They're not and they don't go anywhere.
If you're not consistent, if you're not, you know, laser focused like you said. And that's why you are where you are today because you had that dream and you made the goal and you took the you know, the you built a road map to success. Basically, you did. Yeah. Because it it was a learning a learning curve and it was, you know, you failed forward.
But, yeah, you gotta you gotta do what you gotta do. And if you're if you're serious about it, you can make anything happen. Yeah. I I love it. I just love the conversation.
It's like I it's funny. I saw a Facebook post. It's like the cheesiest thing, but there's like 2 lineups. 1 of them is packed and the other one, there's no one there. It's like everyone wanting the dream.
Everyone willing to do the work to have the dream. The people wait the people who are willing to put in that work is like hardly anyone. Right? It's so simple. Put in the work.
Do the basics. Wake up. You know? Go out in every day and, like, it's it's I don't know. Like, it's like people like, oh my god.
How does he do it? It's like, I just go to work. You know? Like, I am a rocket scientist. I'm a carpenter.
You know? I just, like, building a house, you gotta wake up, you gotta slap every 2 by 4, and you gotta get going. It's like you you know, building your business is exact same thing. It's 1 brick at a time. You just gotta show up.
You gotta put each brick down 1 at a time. Show up and do the work. I love it. Yep. Amazing.
Well, thank you again, Chris, for coming on today. It was an absolute pleasure to have you on. I was really looking forward to this interview. I'm so happy that you were able to make it. And if anyone's looking to connect with you, what would be the best way to go about reaching reaching out to you?
Yeah. So I put my phone number on every podcast, 941-278-1995. You could check us out at longears.com, or my email is clong@longears.com. Awesome. Thank you again so much, Chris, Chris.
And, looking forward to hearing the rest of your journey for throughout the next year years to come, and I'm gonna get you back on. Yeah. Circle back. Appreciate it. Thanks, Britney.
Yeah. No problem. Great. If you're listening and enjoyed, please like and subscribe. If you're 6 figure or higher entrepreneur and looking to come on the podcast for an interview just like Chris did, please go to podcastrebels.com.
We'd love to interview you as well. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Chris. Catch you on the next episode. Bye, guys.
Bye. Hey, everyone. I hope you really enjoyed that episode. As always, if you wanna listen to more daily interview content, make sure you subscribe. And here's 3 ways I can help you in your business for free.
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